


The Accidental Hero

by Winginblood



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 20:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1199142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winginblood/pseuds/Winginblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Private Strife has to make a report directly to General Sephiroth. This is not so easy as it may sound. And it's all Zack's fault.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Accidental Hero

“Sir?”

“Your report, if you please, Private.”

“Sir, I...I’m sorry, Sir, I can’t.” Cloud looked as if there was nothing more he wanted in the world than for the floor to open up and swallow him whole. “Sir,” he added as an afterthought.

“Were you also hit on the head? Has your memory of the events been affected?” Sephiroth asked.

“No, Sir.”

“Then why can you not give me your report?”

Cloud trembled minutely as he stood at parade rest in front of Sephiroth’s desk. It was bad enough that he was having to say no to a superior officer but when that superior officer just happened to be the one that he had had a pretty major crush on for forever it just made the whole situation Zack had put him in even more unfair. “Lieutenant Fair said it was classified, Sir. He said I wasn’t to discuss the, uh, incident with anyone, Sir.” His eyes flicked over from where they were fixed on a point somewhere around Sephiroth’s left ear and held his gaze for a brief fraction of a second before returning to their former position. He visibly swallowed before adding, “Even you, Sir.”

“I see.” Sephiroth’s piercing gaze flicked over to his Second in Command who was leaning casually against a filing cabinet. “Unfortunately for the Lieutenant he has no authority to classify any incident under the excuse that it may cause him a degree of embarrassment if it were to become common knowledge. If he did there would be very little about his average daily activities that one could make a report on.”

Zack snickered and Cloud panicked when he realised Sephiroth had made a joke, tried to laugh, and choked on his own spit instead.

“Are you alright, Private?” Sephiroth asked as he turned his eyes back to Cloud. “Do you require a glass of water?”

“No, Sir,” Cloud gasped, trying his hardest not to cough again. “Thank you, Sir.”

Sephiroth considered the response, and the steadily reddening face as Cloud continued to try to suppress his coughing fit. “So you are not alright and do require a drink?” He started to stand.

“No, Sir! Please, Sir. You don’t have to, I’m fine. I was confused. I’m sorry,” Cloud blurted out as he took a step forward and his hands appeared from behind his back, flapping around as if to somehow shoo Sephiroth back into his chair, horrified with the way he was behaving but unable to stop the babble until Sephiroth was sitting again. He took a deep breath and resumed his previous stance. “Sir.”

Zack was barely able to contain his grin and muttered something that sounded like ‘better than any sitcom’ which Sephiroth didn’t really understand and made a mental note to ask him about later.

“Very well then. Your report, Private. And in the event that my SiC has informed you otherwise, it does not have to be a full report detailing the minutiae of the day in question from the moment reveille sounded. Only the relevant portion from when you were attacked.”

When Cloud began his report of the training mission that he and Zack had undertaken the previous evening in the wasteland outside the city Sephiroth had to interrupt him after only a minute or two. “Are you aware that it is not necessary to address me as Sir at the end of every sentence?”

“Yes Sir. Sorry Sir. It won’t happen again, Si.” Cloud almost bit his tongue off in the attempt to stop the last Sir escaping. This was turning into even more of a nightmare than he had been expecting and he felt he was entirely justified in his refusal of Zack’s previous attempts to get him in the same room as Sephiroth. He was sure Sephiroth was going to think him a complete buffoon and want nothing further to do with him. He still wasn’t quite sure how he was able to speak at a volume that was actually audible.

Sephiroth looked at Cloud closely. He was used to the hero worship that afflicted most people when they spoke to him for the first time, and more often than not every time after that, no matter how annoying and unnecessary he found it. But there was something else going on here that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He knew the boy was close friends with Zack and he would have thought that that friendship should have alleviated at least some of the stress of the meeting. He refused to believe that Zack wouldn’t have spoken to the boy about him to paint him as something other than the cold, aloof, godlike figure that ShinRa were determined to portray him as. Gods knows Zack had never seemed to see him that way. 

Sephiroth had learnt a lot since the first time he had met Zack in an off duty situation when he had finally been persuaded by Angeal to join them again on one of their poker nights. He and Zack had met before obviously, it would have been impossible to have remained unaware of the gregarious, newly made, SOLDIER 3rd Class that Angeal had been mentoring. But it had always been in an on duty scenario or official capacity and Zack had always been appropriately professional and respectful in their interactions.

It was during the second hand of the evening, after he had again refused Zack’s offer of something stronger than water to drink, that the teenager had slung an arm around his shoulder and told him to loosen up.

In the silence that followed, Angeal and Genesis staring at them open mouthed and waiting for his reaction, he realised exactly what Angeal had meant when he had said Zack was fearless. It was refreshing and exciting and, once he’d recovered from the shock of finding someone that would treat him as a normal human being from the start, he responded dryly that he wasn’t aware of anything about him being overly tight but that he would schedule an appointment with the medical department the next morning. 

Zack had blinked and then began laughing so hard that Sephiroth had thought he was going to have a seizure. They’d been getting along famously ever since.

Cloud continued with his report, explaining to Sephiroth how he had run over to Zack when he had gone down. How he had picked up his Buster sword and managed to swing it around a couple of times but not had the strength or technique to do any damage. How the monster had been destroyed by a Fire spell. How he could only assume Zack had somehow accessed the materia in the sword hilt through him as his foot was touching his arm. How he hadn’t had even the most basic of training in magic or materia use and so it couldn’t possibly have been him that had cast the spell even though, as it was happening, it had felt like a punch to the gut and knocked him off his feet.

After Cloud had been dismissed and left Sephiroth’s office, with a clap to his shoulder and a ‘you did great, Spike’ from Zack, Sephiroth opened the folder on his desk and studied the contents. It took him all of five seconds.

“From the look of your written report it would appear that either you were released from the infirmary too soon or you have been spending entirely too much of your time with Reno.” Sephiroth coughed as if clearing his throat and read from the single sheet of paper in his hand. 

_“I got bumped on the head. Then jabbed with a poisonous claw thingy. Cloud kicked major monster butt. I woke up. We came back to base. Cloud is awesome.”_ He squinted slightly and looked closer at the page. “There is then what appears to be a very crude attempt to draw a representation of a face that seems to be smiling followed by the letters x and o.

“Smiley face, kisses and cuddles.”

Sephiroth looked at Zack as if he had suddenly started speaking in an ancient Wutainese dialect. “Pardon?”

Zack grinned at him. “It’s a smiley face and the x and o stand for kisses and cuddles.”

“I see,” Sephiroth replied calmly as he looked back to the page. “And the red coloured shape that surrounds your name? Does that represent anything or is it purely decorative?”

“It’s a heart. It means love.”

“Ah. So the end of the report should actually read as _Love Zack_?”

Zack nodded and then leaned over Sephiroth’s desk to point at something else on the page beside his name. “And Cloud. That’s a picture of a cloud.”

Sephiroth leaned closer to the page. “I thought that was just a smudge. It looks like a yellow smudge. His artistic skills leave a great deal to be desired.”

“Oh, I did that too. Cloud never saw my report. Like I said in it he is awesome so I’m sure his drawing skills are awesome as well.”

“Indeed. It is usually customary, in fact, it is protocol to allow someone to read a report before their name is appended to it. And they would also normally be expected to sign it themselves.” They stared at each other for a long moment until Sephiroth’s lips suddenly quirked upwards. “May I have your real report now? It will be necessary to back up his promotion as even I need to provide some tangible evidence for my decisions if they are to be confirmed.”

Zack laughed. “Sure. It’s already on my desk. I’ll go get it.” He had reached the door that separated their offices when Sephiroth called him back and he turned. “Yeah?”

“Do you think he would be amenable to joining us on one of our poker evenings?”

“I already checked his schedule and he’s off duty on Thursday night. Should I fix something up for then?”

Sephiroth nodded. “That would be acceptable.” Zack was almost through the door when Sephiroth called him back again.

“What is it, boss?”

“Are you certain you were unconscious the whole time, that there is no possible way you could somehow have cast through him?”

“Absolutely sure.”

Sephiroth considered the implications of Zack’s response. “It would be better if no one else finds out about his natural ability for magic. Look after him. Do not let Hojo find out what he can do.”

Zack nodded grimly. “With my life.”


End file.
